100% agree with OP's first point.

50% agree with OP's second point. I feel that the pacing was bad, and made a lot of the "apocalypse" seem like it would wait around for an eternity for us to celebrate seven unbirthdays and a wedding before it finally happened. But I liked the buildup and characterization of Meteion, a lot. She surpasses Zeromus as a piece of writing, while being a character that was inspired by him, or deliberately made to resemble him in story and theme.

0% agree with OP's third point. The Garlean characters were extremely well written. They're not dumb, they've been victimized into believing something contrary to what you know. There's people like that all over the world in real life, too.

With respect to OP's conclusion: Pretty much agree. Pacing was awful. Had a lot of great moments, though. I'd rate it higher overall than any other expansion beside Shadowbringers, though. For writing, scene to scene, character to character, it leaves Heavensward in the dust. As much as I love Heavensward.